In Miami, Williams F1 experienced a little failure in his communications, which made Alex Albon exceeded Carlos Sainz when he should not do. James Vowles, the director of the team, explained how bad timing in the instructions could make the Spaniard believe that his teammate had acted against the interests of the team.
“A message has been transmitted to the two racing engineers, namely that Alex had a reliability problem and that we had to bring air into the radiators” said Vowles. “This message was communicated to the two engineers and the decision was made to widen a small gap between the two cars at the moment in order to make sure that we were getting there.”
“However, this message was not clear in its construction. It was not even clear if the overtaking was possible or not. The primary function is to cool the car so that it can move forward.”
“Carlos received the message according to which Alex would not attack, and Alex received the same message, namely that he should not exceed Carlos, but only once his DRS was open and that he was actually next to Carlos to surpass.”
“It is therefore not Alex who goes against the instructions of the team, it is us, as a team, as an organization, which must significantly tighten the way in which we communicate to the engineers and the speed with which we communicate to the pilots.”
Vowles assures that “will not happen again”, but reveals however that Williams was preparing to quickly pass Albon once the two cars glued to each other: “Even once we stabilized them, it is more than likely that we would have quickly reversed cars.”
“The reason is that Carlos had undergone damage following the first round incident and that the situation was getting worse. We could see that the floor deteriorated, and that is partly the reason why Alex was getting closer and more close to him and was able to iron.”
“The loss was a few tenths at that time. It is therefore more than likely that we would have done this, but again, it would be a decision of the team rather than that of a pilot who did not expect to be attacked.”
The Briton understands the frustration of his pilot perfectly and even the normal judge: “I would be disappointed if we had no pilots frustrated by what is happening on the track. They give themselves body and soul, then in the case of Carlos, he was fighting for a fifth place in merit.”
“In case something surprises you and you don’t know if it is the pilot or something else, it can frustrate you. But his passion is exactly the reason why I want in this team and in the car.”
“We spent a lot of time after the race and Monday to discuss the incident, which only lasted a few minutes, but especially the way the team can go ahead and do a better job in the future.”
